HPLC DETERMINATION OF COSTUNOLIDE AS A MARKER OF Saussurea lappa AND ITS HERBAL FORMULATIONS

Costunolide, isolated from the plant Saussurea lappa is a pharmacologically active sesquiterpene lactone, having important medicinal properties and uses in the treatment of cancers, inflammations, ulcers, skin, viral and microbial infections, etc. A simple isocratic reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated not only for analysis of costunolide in different commercial herbal formulations but also to study the effect of different solvents on the extraction of costunolide from Saussurea lappa roots. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, and system suitability. The average recovery of the method at three levels was 92.16-100.84% and linearity was good for costunolide over a relatively wide range of concentration (1.0-100 μg/mL).